In a sprinkler system, a series of pop-up or fixed sprinkler heads are positioned at spaced intervals over an area to be irrigated, such as a lawn, garden, growing fields on farms, or the like. The sprinkler heads are supplied from a single water source via buried water supply pipes which have spaced outlets connected to the sprinkler heads. If maintenance is required due to a broken or clogged sprinkler head, the entire water supply must be turned off while the maintenance is carried out, then turned on again after the sprinkler head is repaired or replaced. This is inconvenient for the worker.
Since sprinkler heads are located above ground level, they are often accidentally broken. If a sprinkler head is damaged or not in place when the water supply is turned on by an automatic timer, water will gush out of the outlet, resulting in waste of water and potential damage to a lawn or plants in the vicinity.
Check valve devices have been proposed in the past for shutting off water supply to a sprinkler outlet in the event that the sprinkler head is displaced or removed. However, these are of relatively complex design and may be expensive to install.